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The Big Player
Through the genius of men
like Edward Thorpe, Julian Braun, and Lawrence Revere, the theoretical
underpinnings of blackjack card counting had been
worked out to near-perfection by 1970. Practical application of the
card-counting strategies, however, was hampered by an obstacle that no
amount of mathematical genius could overcome: unfriendly pit bosses.
Card counters follow a characteristic betting pattern.
When the odds are with them, they bet high; when the odds are against
them, they bet low. When the pit bosses notice a wide divergence between
a blackjack player's high bets and low bets, they will spot him as a
card counter and, assisted by casino security, either
gently or not-so-gently request that he leave the premises and never
return. The problem, then, was how to bet like a
card counter
without looking like a card counter.
The scene: a Lake Tahoe casino. The cast of characters: Al
Francesco, Al's brother, Al's sister, and Al's sister's husband. The
Francesco family was hanging around the casino, waiting for their
dinner reservation. Al's brother, a
card counter
himself, killed the time by playing small-stakes blackjack with bets
of $1 to $5. Al was standing nearby, chatting casually with his
brother-in-law. When he saw his brother make a $5 bet, Al would
throw in another $100. When he saw his brother make a $1 bet, Al
would hold onto his money. After half-an-hour, when the family went
to go eat dinner, the pit boss begged Al to stay and keep plying
blackjack.
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The significance of the
event was immediately apparent to Al Francesco. From the pit boss's
point of view, Al had appeared as an unsophisticated tourist, barely
paying attention to the game, with plenty of money to throw around, who
had simply gotten lucky on a few hands. Thus was born the persona of The
Big Player. |
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